Nigeria Association of Women in Sports (NAWIS), has disassociated itself from the sports ministry officials’ replacement of Rosa Collins with Gloria Obajimi on the board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.

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The body reiterated that Collins was the duly elected candidate, and has called on the Sports ministry to desist from sowing seeds of disaffection among the women in the group. Collins was shocked to find out that her name had been erased from the list of qualified candidates for the AFN election on Tuesday, however, she was allowed to contest but in the poll, which appeared to have been predetermined by the officials of the ministry.

In a statement signed by Prof. Marian Suleiman, the NAWIS secretary-general, the association said it was against the unilateral decision by the sports ministry officials to expunged the name of Rosa Collins.

“This is the handiwork of those provoked by the enthusiasm and willingness of Rosa Collins to make a positive impact in AFN. Hence they attacked and battered her during the National Sports Federation Elections.

“But it is instructive that NAWIS had held the election of her representative on the National Sports Federation Boards as stipulated by Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development guidelines.

“The election was supervised by Bode Durotoye, a Deputy Director in the Ministry, who was assigned to do that by the Ministry.

“It was Rosa Collins who won the election and her name was forwarded to the Ministry. But, to our dismay, Rosa Collins’ name was substituted with that of Gloria Obajimi who was out of the country when NAWIS held its election of representatives and therefore did not participate. “Moreover, she (Obajimi) was however, very much aware of the election, but she did not participate,” Suleiman said in the statement.